Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski

Michel
Szulc Krzyzanowski was born in Oosterhout (NL) in 1949 and studied at the Academie
St. Joost in Breda, the Netherlands. In 1970 he graduated in photography and
free graphic art at the Koninklijke Akademie voor Kunst en Vormgeving in ’s-Hertogenbosch (NL). After graduation he started working independently and
exclusively on his own photography.

The photography of
Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski can be divided in two fields. On the one hand he makes autonomous-conceptual photography on a deserted beach
in Mexico. This work is exhibited in museums and galleries and purchased by
artcollections.On the other hand he makes autonomous-documentary photography that is published
in books, magazines and newspapers and presented in exhibitions.

In 1971 he exhibited for the first time his photo sequences, in the
Noord-Brabants Museum in ’s-Hertogenbosch (NL). In 1972 he had his
first exhibition abroad with his photo sequences in the Camden Arts Centre in
London (UK). As of then, his sequences have been widely exhibited and purchased
by major museums and artcollectors worldwide. Three photobooks have been
published of his sequences.
In order to avoid epigonism he stopped making sequences in 1985 and in 1995 he
started to work again on his former sequences-location in Mexico. A new body of
work was created called the VISTA-series: monumental color images. A photobook
of this work was published called “VISTA”. VISTA-pictures are widely exhibited as well and are purchased
by important artcollections.
From the year 2000 Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski made artvideos on the former
sequence and VISTA locations in Mexico but in 2006 returned to making single
images again. Resulting in the photobook “The PS-series". The same beach at El Triple, Baja California, Mexico has been used now as a
theatre for his autonomous-conceptual work for over 30 years.

His autonomous-conceptual photography: sequences, VISTA-pictures and the
PS-series have been exhibited a.o. in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (NL), the
Centre Beaubourg in Paris (FR), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (USA), the Ludwig
Museum in Cologne (D) and in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts (USA), who also
acquired his work for their art-collections. Four photo-books have been
published with his conceptual images.

In 2000 Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski moved from Amsterdam to
live and work in Cadaques, Spain where he made autonomous-conceptual work in
the Parc Natural Cabo de Creus: the Punta Prima-series. In 2005 he left
Cadaques to live and work in a permanent mobile way without a home anymore.

So far 13 photobooks have been published with his autonomous-documentary
photography. There have been countless magazine- and newspaper publications as
well as exhibitions.

His autonomous-documentary photography has a conceptual foundation as well. He works on the basis of his own ideas, such as the photo-project ‘Henny’. An arbitrary chosen Dutch woman who has been followed photographically in her daily life since her 16th year for over 36 years. These pictures have been published so far in six photobooks. Many of his photo projects were related to the Third World, such as ‘Gewoon Afrika’ (Ordinary Africa): the life of four inhabitants in a small village in Zimbabwe during three months. As of 1998 Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski works on his “World of…” photo-projects. “World of love” (about how people worldwide love each-other within a family), “World of Energy” (20 different ways of producing and consuming energy worldwide), “World of little heroes” (two 9-year old physically challenged girls: Hasina in Bangladesh and Samantha in Canada compared in pictures), “The most beautiful people in the world” (People responding to announcements in newspapers when asked if they believe they happen to be the most beautiful in the world) and "What the world has never seen" (People worldwide who show what nobody has ever seen before).